Islamic Network charity website called for the slaughter of gay people

The trustees of the charity were found to have removed the hate material when they were alerted to it(Getty)

Islamic Network, a Muslim charity, leant its name to articles calling for the murder of homosexuals and encouraging the killing of Muslims, an inquiry has found.

An investigation by the Charity Commission has found posts on the Islamic Network's website "encouraged violence and denigrated particular faiths".

The Charity Commission has said in a statement on its findings:"The charity's website had hosted historic material from 2004 that legitimised the killing of gay people and encouraged the killing of Muslims in certain circumstances."

The investigation concluded it was inappropriate for the charity to host the information in its name on the website, although Islamic Network's current trustees had "acted quickly to take the website offline when the material in question came to their attention".

The current heads of the charity were not in place when the information was published. The domain name which hosted the articles was inherited by the charity.

Trustees are responsible for ensuring steps are taken to remove clearly inappropriate content posted on their website straight away. In cases of illegality such as hate crime or terrorist related material, they must report the matter to the police

The inquiry focused on two articles, one called "The prohibition of the blood of a Muslim and the reasons for shedding it" and the other "Homosexuality".

The former made reference to the circumstances when under an interpretation of Islamic law it was permissible to "spill the blood of a Muslim". The instances included adultery, murder and apostacy.

The article "Homosexuality" claimed that homosexuality was a "perverted sexual behaviour", a "sick disease" and an "evil and filthy practice".

It advocated that gay people should be "destroyed by fire", "executed by being thrown from a great height" and "stoned to death".

Michelle Russell, director of investigations, monitoring and enforcement at the Charity Commission, said:

"Trustees carry ultimate responsibility for the operation and activities of the charity, including for the content of their charity's website and social media.

"Trustees are responsible for ensuring steps are taken to remove clearly inappropriate content posted on their website straight away. In cases of illegality such as hate crime or terrorist-related material, they must report the matter to the police," she added.

Islamic Network's aims include increasing awareness of the tenets of the Islamic faith among Muslims and non-Muslims through educational media and seminars.

The charity has said in a statement to IBTimes UK that "As previously stated this was an historical website we had inherited over a decade ago with thousands of articles which, like the ones in question, had been posted by unknown third parties overseas without our knowledge.

"We accept we had not completed the process of reviewing the articles as quickly as we should have done. However as soon as we were made aware of the existence of those articles the trustees removed the website with immediate effect.

"The trustees recognized these articles were offensive and hateful, and did not reflect our views and were against our own anti-extremism policies."